Imagine life under the Affordable Air Act

Deroy Murdock writes: Once upon a time, a man named Obama fretted that 10 percent of U.S. citizens never had ridden in an airplane, as the New America Foundationreported. “Let me be clear,” Obama said. “We can do better.”

Rather than let entrepreneurs and philanthropists help people take their first flights, Obama and a Democratic Congress concocted the Affordable Air Act. Big government, they reckoned, must race to the rescue. Instead of assisting those who never had flown, Obama and company overturned the entire aviation industry — for airlines and passengers alike.

Republicans yelled. The flying public rebelled. But Democrats prevailed. ObamaAir was signed into law.

Kayak.com, Priceline.com, and other companies already served passengers efficiently. But Obama insisted that his signature program construct its own website. So, Obama spent three years and $677 million on Airfare.gov.

It flopped spectacularly.

Meanwhile, in what PolitiFact.com called its “Lie of the Year,” Obama promised Americans 37 times: “If you like your plane, you can keep your plane. Period.” Nonetheless, Obama infantilized passengers who were content to travel in coach. They naïvely had bought “substandard” seats, Obama snarled, from “bad apple” airlines.